


Something Blue

by Maidenjedi



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 10:53:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3526559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maidenjedi/pseuds/Maidenjedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A walk through the mind of Linda Bowman, just prior to "Kitsunegari."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for "Pusher" and "Kitsunegari." Originally posted to Gossamer on July 25, 2002. Posted to Ao3 without edits on March 11, 2015.
> 
> Written for the Harem's Obscure Women 500 Challenge.

Something old, something new.

Something borrowed, something blue.

Cerulean blue.

When she married Nathan Bowman, her something blue was a ribbon laced through her garter. It had taken quite a few trips to find it, but she got lucky at a thrift store upstate. Cerulean blue ribbon.

As she became Nathan's widow, the world turned cerulean blue. Not from ribbon, but from paint. The clerk had looked pleased when she asked for it.

Such a pretty color, thought Linda. Like a gentle breeze, said Bobby's voice in her head.

As Nathan exhaled his final breath, bubbles of blue paint popped on his nose and his lips.

She splashed more paint from the can. Nathan's tie was showing.

She was calm.

When her brother was shot, she was a wreck. Nathan hadn't noticed, because he was too busy prosecuting the case.

One night, as she watched him sleep, Linda had visions of this day. A can of paint and her dearly beloved husband. And a plan was born. She was giddy then.

And now, as the pieces fell into place, she was calm. The power that always exhausted Bobby, that made him weak and easy to catch, coursed through Linda's veins. Such clarity, such peace.

Bobby had escaped, just as she knew he would. Anything to prevent his sister from making the same mistakes he had. That lured the Fox from his hiding place.

She would make him pay for what he had done. She would do it as Bobby would have. Play with the Fox, taunt him, hunt him down.

She painted the word on the wall. She'd coaxed Bobby into teaching her just a little Japanese, just for this occasion.

She learned to make the ideogram for "KITSUNEGARI".

Fox hunt.

Even now, she could almost smell him. Getting closer, looking for her brother. A predator with skills.

Kitsunegari in cerulean blue paint, marring her suburban beige walls, dripping onto her suburban oak furniture.

Cerulean blue taking over her plain vanilla world.

How long would it be before they found Nathan? She hoped it would be sooner rather than later. She hoped the paint would still be wet, that it would stain the F.B.I. agent's hands. She hoped his pretty little partner ruined her shoes in it.

Bobby had told her everything. The Fox was a formidable foe. Perhaps, Linda thought. But she was a more powerful enemy than her brother. He thought of himself as ronin, a samurai without a master. She thought of herself as kamikaze.

If she had to go down, she'd take her enemy with her.

She left the house, locking the door. She thought again of Bobby in the wheelchair.

Bobby told her not to go through with it. She laughed at him. Someone had to, she said.

She would dance the dance her brother didn't get to finish. She would dance with the Fox and she would lead.

She would finish him off.

Cerulean blue for Nathan's shroud, and to line the Fox's grave.


End file.
